New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-08-20
4 TRIUMPH OF OLD TORYISM

The proclamation of the Land League
marks the final triumph Of Old Tory policy in
a shutting Cabinet Since the passage OF the
Crimes Act there has been an interval OF vacll-
lation. The Government has been alternately
conciiating and intimidating Ireland, and
endcavoring to pull itself together in order to
carry out permanent policy The Land Bill
was first recast in Difference to Mr. Parnells
wishes, large concessions being made which
converted it from landlords into a genuine
tenants measure. This conciliatory course
was adopted after Lord Randolph Churchill
and Mr. Chamberlain had sharply attacked the
bill and when the first evidence OF popular
reaction against the Government had been fur
nished by the bye-elections. Then followed
a crisis in the Cabinet and another interval
Of indecision. The landholdcrs and the peers
rcvolted against conciliatory counscls. They
denounced the revision of the Land Act as an
unnecessary display of weakness and instabil-
ity. They demanded that the Crimes Act
should be rigorous enforced against the Ma
tional League and that the authority OF the
Crown should be restored with an outstretched
hand The Old Tories have triumphcd. The
Liberal Unionists and Lord Randolph Church
i'll have been thrust aside. The Land Act
if ii be not abandoned altogether, will be
passed with amendments which the Irish mcm-
bers pronounce fatal to 1t as remedial meas
ure. The Coercion Act, which Ministers de-
clared on every occasion was meant for the
repression Of criminal and not of political
agencies is put in force against the National
League. The old story is repeated for tho
hundrcdth time.
The Government takes advantage of Mr..
Parnelr's open defiance in the debate on the
amended Land Bill. lie denounced the sur
render to the landlords and warned Ministers
that there was nothing in their remedial
scheme that would reconcile. the island to
coercion. The tenants, he boasted, would
look to other methods of redress outside the
law and the Constitution, which were in the
long run the only arguments Parliament ever
recognized. This hostile menace Of agrarian
and political agitation by characteristic Irish
methods the Government meets with the proc
lamation Of the National League. 1t returns
to Mr.. Forsters warfare upon political organ
izations, which was brought to an ignominious
end by the Treaty Of Kilmainham. 1t pro-
claims the League as an illegal organization
and measuring its force against it will with
the aid of the military garrison break it UP
Us Mr.. Forster stamped out the Land League.
But Mr. Forster failed in tho end, albeit he
had behind him Mr.. Gladstone's political
authority and the combined force of both of
the great English parties. How can the Old
Tories hope to succeed now, when Mr.. Glad
stone and the great mass Of the Liberal party
are arayed against them? They cannot sue
ceed They will fail miserably, as they de-
serve to fail.
The Tories believe that the only remedy for
Irish discomfort is coercion. They are acting
upon this conviction. The Liberal Unionists.
while they have acquiesocd in the passage Of
tho Crimes Bill. have not favored the proc